Yeah, my fire wall. The persons who did the head gasket on my Rover before me bashed the fire wall in to make room for that one last head bolt.

My Rover had ..
Head gaskets done some time in the past
Then me at 96,000.
Guess my engine was unlucky.
Runs fine now at 107,000 still.

 

whooo hold on here that head is junk, the vale seat has dropped out. it that the set on the truck or the spare motor?

 

Drowsap,
Good eye!
Did not see that valve seat.
Guess cause I did not expect it.

Charlie, if a valve seat has dropped, that means the motor was severely overheated.

And your valve seat has dropped.

IF the motor was overheated to this degree, there is a good chance that the liners would have slipped or worse.

You take a risk then putting this back together that the engine will have liner problems now or in the future.

The liners come loose and move around when the engine is hot.

Another used engine is also a risk as you don't know what happened to it.

If you put this truck back together with new or rebuilt heads, all may be fine.
Or the liners may be trouble.

As you do have the engine out of the truck, you could also replace the crank bearings on the bottom end and the big end rod bearings.

Then back together and see how you make out.

Of course purest will press you for a full rebuild - timing chain, cam shaft and all that.

Then you debate the costs and see if a new short block can be had.

 

I have a better picture of that milky valve somewhere, but I can tell you it is surely unseated. Your comment about liners concernes me.

Recall that the engine you are seeing is my spare. It was the original engine for my truck and my ex wife drove it hot until it quit, a mere 3 weeks after the truck was paid off. I rolled it is the garage and it it sat for six years. Poorly stored.

Couple years ago I yanked it out and put a used one in. I've been driving with a grin on my face for those two years until recently when the HG started leaking and I started hearing a pronounced tick after the engine heats up.

So I pulled the heads of the spare to have them planed to just swap on the newer engine and, maybe, rebuild and repurpose. That is in the pictures. But seeing the heat damage I am not sure I need to use anything from that engine. When I started pulling it apart I toyed with the idea of doing a complete rebuild on it. But while I can turn wrenches and put things back together I don't know much about engine internals... And like a toddler who looks at other to know whether to laugh or cry, I'm getting the cry vibe from you guys. Hmm.

 

Loosening those head bolts manually and on the stand... Wow. That's some serious torque. I had to use a four foot section of metal fence post and all of my (admittedly light) weight on my socket wrench and the bar to loosen them. If my buddy hadn't been holding the engine I couldn't have done it. A couple of mid forty year olds worrying about their shoulders and backs for sure. I can sure understand the advice not to re use head bolts (and I got new ones).

The valley gasket was in pieces.

 

So should I just put this engine in the pickup and take it to the machine shop and ask them what they think? Should i just take it to the junk yard and put the head gasket on my running engine (with its ticking) and pull my om617, get the adapter made, and prepare to put it in? Are my pictures any help in the decision? I can take others.

Except for the ticking and a light HG leak the running engine is in good shape. I have replaced water pump, oil pump gears, plug wires, gaskets... Just about everything you can fix or replace without removing it.

 

looking at your spare I would use the head on the motor in the truck, that head is toast.
it can be repaired but why when you have others.

 

Pardon my ignorance, but can you tell me exactly what is meant by a valve job? I'm sure the shop will walk me through it but I'd rather look stupid here than there.

 

My guess is that I would be better off buying some heads than using those... but I am curious, what would have to be done to repair them? All parts off and new parts?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valve_job